“邂逅 Next calculation era.”
Magic Leap’s official website has such a sentence. It perfectly explains why this startup, founded in 2010, has reached its peak and fell to the altar today.
When most people in the world did n’t know what virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) were, they already started a medical robotics company and sold the company for $ 1.6 billion in Rony Abovitz. A new exploration on AR.
▲ Rony Abovitz, founder of Magic Leap. Picture from: xxx
So when Facebook acquired virtual reality startup Oculus for $ 2 billion, announcing the advent of the VR era, the deep accumulation of Magic Leap is even more exciting. “One of the best companies in the next computing era” is enough Let the top investment institutions willingly become ATM machines.
But, like countless VR and AR companies, Magic Leap, which has an earlier layout, more financing, and a harder technical route, is just as difficult to achieve.committed to.
Recently, The Information, a technology media known for its exclusivity, once again made the brutal truths faced by Magic Leap public: According to several former employees and people familiar with Magic Leap, six months after its listing, the company’s number one The first generation of VR glasses, Magic Leap One, only sold 6,000 units, and the previously adjusted conservative target is to sell at least 100,000 units in the first year.
The huge gap between actual sales and expectations is just like the gap between public expectations and the actual experience of Magic Leap One. In August last year, the consumer version of Magic Leap One went on sale, starting at $ 2,295. The set consists of AR glasses, a handle and a processor attached to the waist.
Combined with the media of Magic Leap One and the experience of ordinary consumers, it is a “slightly better” AR glasses than Microsoft’s Hololens experience. Its field of view (FOV) is still narrow and much smaller than the actual field of view of the human eye, which means that the picture cannot be perfectly superimposed on the real scene in the near distance, and it is difficult to immerse yourself in the augmented reality world .
▲ Comparison of the field angles of human eyes, Play Station VR, Magic Leap One and Hololens. Picture from: VentureBeat
Even though it is already the best AR device in the world, it is far from the scene once described by Magic Leap. Whales leaping high in the gym, reading emails in the office, or even a scene Fierce gun battles are still out of reach.
Just in 2017, The Information also found that these videos were all created by a special effects company, not based on Magic Leap technology.
Consumer ecology and developer ecology are mutually complementary. When a product representing the future is not able to meet the expectations of ordinary consumers on the basic experience, it may mean that the future has not yet come, and sane developers Will not choose to develop content for it.
Virtual reality (VR) is currently much more mature than augmented reality, but it also faces the dilemma of consumers not buying it. As far as I know, many teams that developed VR games a few years ago have already started to develop WeChat mini games.
Magic Leap had hoped for the next-generation version coming with 5G. It is said that it can have a wider field of view and a lighter body. However, according to The Information, due to “limitations of basic technology”, Magic Leap New versions that will be released in the near future will have only minor updates.
Magic Leap’s management is also in turmoil. Google CEO, Sundar Pichai and former Qualcomm chairman, Paul Jacobs, have quietly left the board of Magic Leap. Of course, there may be other reasons. Paul Jacobs was expelled from Qualcomm’s board because of Broadcom ’s hostile takeover of Qualcomm. Sundar Pichai ’s reason was “too busy,” which may not be an excuse, because Takes over the CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
However, Magic Leap has fired several employees in the past few weeks; last month, according to media reports, the company’s CFO, Scott Henry, and John Gaeta, senior vice president of creative strategy, have also left the company. John Gaeta was the executive creative director of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic, where he led the creative special effects of The Matrix.
The next computing era is coming, but it may be a little bit farther than Magic Leap expected.